Naming Our Son

Lately, a lot of people have been asking us about what we are going to name our son. The topic is interesting from a couple of perspectives.

In the first place, Leah and I have not really had the conversation yet. We have certainly talked about it, but not in any depth. It just feels different. While we discussed names we liked throughout both of Leah's pregnancy's with the girls, there is something about getting our referral, knowing who our son will be and getting to see his face that we feel needs to come before any real conversation about names. That seems weird to write, but I think it is where we are.

Secondly, and probably more important, is the issue of naming an adopted child in the first place. If we were adopting a brand new infant from his first days of life, then it would be one thing. However, we will likely be adopting a child who will be anywhere from 5 months to a year old when we get him. He will already have a name at this point, and depending on his circumstance, his name might be from his biological family or one given to him by an orphanage if he was abandoned. While I think we will feel differently about changing his name if it is a biological family name versus one just given to him by an orphanage, the idea of maintaining our son's Ethiopian culture through his name is a major consideration and a topic of much debate in the adoption community.

On one hand, changing his name from a foreign sounding, and possibly difficult to pronounce Ethiopian name to a more American sounding name, seems to make sense. On the other hand, stripping him of one of the true markers of his cultural heritage as an Ethiopian does not seem like the best thing to do.

As you can see, this is a sensitive and difficult topic to think about. However, when it is all said and done, I think we will likely end up somewhere in the middle. Depending on his familial background (if there is one to be known), we may keep his given name as a middle name and give him a more American sounding first name. If his name was just given to him by an orphanage, then I could see us picking an American sounding Ethiopian name in the hope of achieving a good balance.

So, the answer to the initial question is that we don't know yet. But, we are thinking and praying about it and look forward to sharing some more of our processing further down the road.

For more reading on the topic, I think this post and this post from an Ethiopian adoption blog we read are good summations of both sides of the debate over naming an adopted child. Also, if you want to give us some suggestions, here is a good list of Ethiopian boy names we might consider.